Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
"99 Luftballons" (German: Neunundneunzig Luftballons, "99 balloons") is a song by the West German band Nena from their 1983 self-titled album. An English-language version titled "99 Red Balloons"(German: Neunundneunzig Rote Luftballons), with lyrics by Kevin McAlea, was also released by Nena on the album 99 Luftballons in 1984 after widespread success of the original in Europe and Japan.
The most widely known cover of this album is identical to the one used for most versions of the single "99 Luftballons" or "99 Red Balloons". [4]The album was also released as Nena or International Album; this version used the same cover, but with "99 Luftballons" removed, and sometimes with additional sticker at upper left that says "International Album incl. Club-Mix - 99 Red Balloons". [5]
In that same year, the band re-recorded this song in English as "99 Red Balloons". [1] Nena's re-recording of some of the band's old hit songs as a solo artist, produced by the co-composer of most of them, her former Nena band colleague and keyboard player Uwe Fahrenkrog-Petersen, rekindled her solo career in 2002. Combined with the success of ...
Kevin McAlea is an Irish keyboard player and songwriter, known for his work with Kate Bush, David Gilmour, and Barclay James Harvest and for writing English lyrics for the song "99 Luftballons", as the international hit "99 Red Balloons". [1] He also plays saxophone, guitar and uilleann pipes.
Nena was a West German Neue Deutsche Welle band formed in West Berlin in 1981. In 1983 and 1984, their German-language song "99 Luftballons" (and its English version, "99 Red Balloons") reached number one in the singles charts of countries around the world.
The AOL.com video experience serves up the best video content from AOL and around the web, curating informative and entertaining snackable videos.
The three singles released from the Nena album have enjoyed particular prominence in lead singer Nena's career. Although "99 Luftballons" is by far the most well known globally, the other two ("Nur geträumt" and "Leuchtturm") have for more than 30 years been ever-present features of the live concerts of firstly the band and then Nena in her subsequent solo career.
A line in their lyrics, "this is it, boys; this is war", recalls "99 Red Balloons", the English version of Nena's 1983 hit "99 Luftballons". Lyrically, the song expresses the existential angst of a young protagonist who is a long way from home. [2]